System and method of enhancing swine reproduction

ABSTRACT

A method of increasing the probability of breeding swine via a lighting system with a programmable timing device. The lighting system is programmed to present differing photoperiods such that the amount of light observed by a swine every day or week gradually decreases, mimicking a seasonal change, typically from summer to fall. As a result, swine psychologically and physiologically believe that seasons are changing resulting in increased probability of breeding for the swine.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional patent application entitled “System and Method of Enhancing Swine Reproduction,” Ser. No. 61/924,477, filed on Jan. 7, 2014, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

This invention relates to swine reproduction. More specifically this invention relates to stimulating, facilitating and enhancing the swine breeding using a LED lighting system.

Farmed animal reproduction has grown into a multi-million dollar business. For years, in the horse racing field, racing champions have been selected to stud mares in hopes of providing an offspring that will similarly be a champion racer.

In the swine industry the breeding of swine has become its own industry. In particular, as the swine industry has become more modernized not only have the swine moved indoor to confinement facilities, a greater emphasis on efficiency within swine operations has been emphasized. This is true among all facets of swine production including reproduction.

In an effort to increase efficiencies within the swine facility regarding reproduction, artificial insemination has become a common method to support breeding within swine facilities. The process of artificial insemination has multiple benefits within the swine industry. First, this allows humans to be able to monitor for estrous female swine and ensure delivery of boar semen at the optimal time for conception, thus increasing the likelihood of successful impregnation. Second, because there is human delivery of the semen, exact record keeping of the breeding process can be documented. This allows for more accurate mating information as well as gestation and litter data. Finally, as part of the artificial insemination process, the sperm of the boar can be selected depending on the type of piglet desired.

While these advantages of the artificial insemination process exist, problems remain. In particular, the artificial insemination process is expensive. Thus, ensuring that when the process in undertaken that the female swine become impregnated is paramount to the process. This remains problematic for multiple reasons. First, female swine ovulate at different times from one another, causing the need for constant monitoring and potential missed cycles. In addition, research has shown that female swine are most fertile during winter months and conversely demonstrate a tendency towards reduced conception during summer months. Also, not all boar ejaculate is optimal for breeding. In particular, sperm concentration and motility vary from boar to boar. In consequence, boars and boar semen for artificial insemination are sold with increased prices for the best boar or boar semen for conception. In particular, high performance boars are auctioned off for premier prices.

Thus, a need in the art exists to facilitate successful breeding of swine. In particular, increased chances of successful breeding during all times of the year are desired along with maximizing the chances of conception using the artificial insemination method of reproduction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method of increasing the probability of breeding swine via a lighting system with a programmable timing device. The lighting system is programmed to present predetermined periods of light and dark for the swine every twenty four hours for a first pre-determined amount of time, typically a week. During this period the dark light is mere dark light for the swine, which can include red wavelength light. After the first pre-determined amount of time the predetermined periods of light and dark changed such that the amount of dark time increases and light time decreases over a second predetermined period of time, such as another week. Then this occurs again, over a third predetermined period of time such that the swine believes lighting is going from summer into fall or between predetermined season, causing an increase in the probability of breeding for the swine.

Thus a principle object of the present invention is to enhance breeding in animals using light. Another object of the present invention is to provide a systematic easily reproducible method of enhancing breeding in animals. These and other objects, advantages and improvements will be apparent from the rest of the specification and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side plan view of an animal confinement facility.

FIG. 2 is a side plan view of a lighting device of a lighting system.

FIG. 3 is a side perspective view of a lighting device of a lighting system.

FIG. 4 is a top perspective view of a lighting device of a lighting system.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a control system for a lighting system.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of circuitry of a lighting system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The figures show an animal confinement facility 10 that in a preferred embodiment is a facility 10 that confines swine. Still, other animals, including horses, avian, bovine, and other domesticated animals such as sheep and goats, aquatic life including fish and shrimp, or the like could be within the facility without falling outside the scope of this disclosure. In this preferred embodiment the facility 10 is directed toward a swine confinement facility 10, but again could be any such different facility 10.

The figures show the swine facility 10 that includes a dwelling 12 such as a barn or hog containment facility. The dwelling 12 has a plurality of containment units 14 such as pens, stalls and the like. The floor 16 of the containment units 14 consist of a plurality of slat elements 18 that sit in paralleled spaced relation to one another to form a plurality of openings 20 between consecutive slat elements 18. In one embodiment the slat elements 18 are angled or slanted with one end higher than the other to cause a downward slope toward an opening 20 in the floor 16. In this manner when a swine 22 steps on or rolls on feces the feces is pushed through the openings 20 below the floor 16. Similarly, during wash down of the containment units 14 the feces is power sprayed and the water and feces 24 go through the openings 20 beneath the floor and into a reservoir 26.

The figure also shows a lighting system 28 that in one embodiment includes a plurality of electrical conduit bodies 30 that receive and electrical input from an electrical source 32. The lighting system is of any type, including but not limited to those as previously described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,596,804 entitled Light Sources Adapted to Spectral Sensitivity of Diurnal Avians and Humans, U.S. Ser. No. 12/916,313 entitled LED Lighting for Livestock Development, U.S. Prov. Pat. App. 61/861,645 entitled System and Method for Manipulating Psychological and Physiological Characteristics of Swine, all to Grajcar and all of which are fully incorporated by reference herein. The electrical conduit bodies 30 house wiring 34 that extend to provide an electric excitation signal to different areas in the dwelling. In one embodiment the wiring is electrically connected to a socket 36 to receive a lighting assembly 38.

The lighting assembly 38 includes a base 40 having electrical conducting elements 42 therein that threadably and electrically connects within the socket 36 as is known in the art. The base 40 is either threadably received or compression fit onto a frustroconally shaped body 44 having a hollow interior 46 and a sidewall 48 that extends outwardly and away from a first end 50 having a first diameter to a second end 52 having a second diameter greater than the first diameter. In this manner when waste or feces or water is sprayed on the body 44 the material flows downwardly and off the assembly 38. At the second end is a ring element 54 that is of size and shape to engage a sealing element 56 that in a preferred embodiment is made from an elastic material that expands upon compression. The sealing element 56 is secured between the ring element 54 and heat sink 58 to provide a water tight seal there between. In this manner electrical wiring 60 is electrically connected to the conductive body through the body 44 and heat sink within a water tight assembly 38.

In an alternative embodiment a socket 36 is not presented and instead the wiring is directly provided. In this embodiment the body 44 with the base 40 are not provided and instead the electrical wiring 60 disposed through the heat sink 58 is directly or hard wired to the wiring 34 of the conduit to provide a direct electrical connection. The heat sink 58 is then threadably and/or sealing connected to the conduit again to provide a water tight seal to prevent water from being within the interior of the heat sink 58 and being exposed to the electrical wiring 60.

The heat sink 58 in a preferred embodiment is made of a plastic material and has a plurality of fin elements 62 that assist in conveying heat through the sink 58. The heat sink 58 extends from a first end 64 adjacent the conduit bodies 30 that receives the sealing element 56 in one embodiment and is sealed to a conduit body 30 in another to second end 66. The second end 66 is secured to a diffusion element 68 that has a frustroconical shape having a sidewall 69 that extends from a first end 70 outwardly and downwardly from the heat sink 58 to an open second end 72 having a diameter slightly greater than the diameter of the first end 70 and terminating in a lip element 74. By being sloped at an angle and downwardly, again, water, feces and other materials often known to swine facilities 10 flow off the diffusion element 68, yet the lip element 74 keeps a robust design to withstand the harsh environment.

A substrate is also secured to the second end 66 of the heat sink 58 and in one embodiment has a generally round shape. The substrate also in one embodiment is a printed circuit board. The substrate includes driving circuitry 78, as shown in FIG. 6. The circuitry is similar to that taught in U.S. Pat. No. 8,373,363 entitled Reduction of Harmonic Distortion for LED Loads, by Z. Grajcar and issued on Feb. 12, 2013 and U.S. patent application entitled “Color Temperature Shift Control for Dimmable AC LED Lighting,” Ser. No. 12/824,215, which was filed by Z. Grajcar on Jun. 27, 2010, the entire contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The circuitry 78 of the present invention includes a rectifying device 80 that receives current from an AC source 82 and includes a first group of light emitting diodes 84 arranged in series with a second group of light emitting diodes 86, both of which comprise diodes emitting white light. A third group of light emitting diodes 88 comprising diodes emitting red light are presented in parallel to the first and second groups of diodes 84 and 86. Red light emitted is considered any light having a wavelength approximately between 620 nm and 780 nm. Alternatively, light emitting diodes providing blue light, or having a wavelength approximately between 400 nm and 500 nm, could be used without falling outside the scope of this invention. A bypass path 90 is presented with a first impedance element 92 that in one embodiment is a transistor. In a preferred embodiment the first impedance element 92 is a depletion MOSFET, though a p-channel MOSFET, n-channel MOSFET or the like can be used without falling outside the scope of this disclosure, even if an additional transistor is required for functionality purposes. A first resistor 94 is also provided to control the flow of current through the first impedance element 92 to provide smooth and continuous current flow.

A second bypass path 96 is also provided with a second impedance element 98 that similarly in one embodiment is a depletion MOSFET. Similar to the first bypass path 90 the second bypass path 96 utilizes a second resistor 100 again to control the impedance element 98. Similarly also, a third bypass path 102 is provided between the third group of light emitting diodes 88 and first and second groups of light emitting diodes 84 and 86. Again, this bypass path 102 utilizes a third impedance element 104 and third resistor 106 to provide similar functionality as the other bypass paths. In this manner when a dimming device 108 is electrically connected to the circuit and the voltage begins dropping, current flow to the first group of diodes 84 drops first, dimming out the first group of white diodes. Then as dimming continues and a threshold current is reached the second group of light emitting diodes 86 begin to dim. Thus, again white light is slowly dimmed and eliminated from the output light. In this manner only the third group of light emitting diodes 88 that are red remain providing light. A supplemental resistor 109 optionally is provided to limit current in the system and to improve efficiencies.

Therefore the assembly dims to produce a red light. Consequently, with a programmable dimming device the lighting assembly 38 can provide a combination of white and red light throughout a 24 hour period to optimize swine characteristics.

A lens element 110 is secured to the heat sink 58, diffusion element 68 or both. In one embodiment fastening elements 112 are utilized to provide the connection. In particular the lens element 110 is secured to provide a water tight seal so that water cannot encroach the interior of the assembly 38.

A control system 118 is electronically connected to the lighting assemblies 38. The control system 118 includes an input 119 for actuating a computing system 120 having programming 122 therein associated with a timing device 124. The control system 118 additionally has a dimming device 126 that is electrically connected to the timing device 124 such that the programming 122 at predetermined periods will automatically dim the lighting assemblies 38 to a predetermined light setting. The control system 118 in one embodiment communicates remotely through over the air communications, via Wi-Fi or as is known in the art to provide lighting and dimming information to an individual having a remote computing device 128 or handheld device 130 having the capability to receive such communication. In one embodiment the computing device 128 or handheld device 130 may be used to communicate instructions to the control system 118 such that the control system 118 is remotely controlled by the remote device 128 or 130. Examples of the remote devices include but are not limited to computers, laptop computers, tablets, Ipads, smartphones, blackberries, remote controls and the like.

The lighting assemblies 38 are designed as described above such that the light includes different wavelengths or colors. In this manner a dimming device 126 when actuated will change the color of the lighting assembly from a first predetermined color to a second predetermined color. In one embodiment the first predetermined color is white and as the lighting assemblies are dimmed down the light output becomes red. In another embodiment the first predetermined color is white and the second predetermined color is blue. In yet another embodiment the first predetermined color is red and the second predetermined color is blue.

The lighting assemblies 38 are also spread out evenly across the facility 10, in one embodiment in a grid like manner, such that a generally evenly spread out intensity of light is provided on the swine. In this manner no change in light intensity is detected by the swine 22 providing a calming condition to the swine 22. Thus stress on the swine 22 is reduced providing a healthier swine 22 that is less susceptible to diseases such as ulcers.

Thus, in operation the control system 118 is programmed to provide not only predetermined wavelengths or colors, in addition the timing device 124 sets predetermined intervals for each day. In particular, the control system 118 can provide 16 hours of white light during a day and then actuate the dimming device 126 to dim the lighting assemblies 38 to a red light for eight hours. Then after the eight hours, the dimming device 126 is actuated to again provide white light. The programming 122 can additionally be configured to then vary the predetermined durations of time. Thus, for a first time period, such as a day or week the control system 118 provides a predetermined interval of 16 hours of white light and eight hours of red light. Then for a second time period, such as a next day or week, the predetermined interval can go to a different predetermined time interval, such as fourteen hours of white light and ten hours of red light. Then during a third time period the predetermined time intervals can be changed to provide twelve hours of white light and twelve hours of red, and so on, such that any predetermined levels can be accomplished by the lighting assemblies 14 in a given day. Thus any daily photoperiod and light spectrum desired by an end user can be provided.

In one embodiment the control system 118 is used on lighting assemblies 38 that are actuated to provide fourteen hours of white light for the swine and ten hours of red light which is provided for a first week. Then every week the control system 118 reduces the amount of white light and increases the amount of red light by an hour, such that in the second week thirteen hours of white light is provided and eleven hours of red light, in week three 12 hours of white light and twelve hours of red light, in week four 11 hours of white light and thirteen hours of red light, in week five 10 hours of white light and fourteen hours of red light, in week six 9 hours of white light and fifteen hours of red light, and finally in week seven 8 hours of white light and sixteen hours of red light.

Then, in this preferred embodiment in week eight, every day the white light, red light predetermined periods are reversed back, such that on a first day nine hours of white light is presented and fifteen hours of red light, on the second day ten hours of white light and fourteen hours of red light and so on until fourteen hours of white light and ten hours of red light is again provided. At this point again the control system steps down the amount of white light one week at a time such that in week nine 14 hours of white light and ten hours of red light is provided, in week ten 13 hours of white light and eleven hours of red light is provided, in week eleven 12 hours of white light and twelve hours of red light are provided, and so on until again eight hours of white light is presented with sixteen hours of red light.

In this embodiment, because swine do not perceive red light, the red light is considered a dark period for the swine even though humans are still able to see within the confinement facility 10. As a result of decreasing the photoperiod over a seven week period swine are cued to a fall/winter seasonality, which in nature results in the female swine being at their most fertile condition and male swine producing there highest concentration of seamen.

In addition to increasing predictability and optimizing artificial insemination for the female swine, the male swine sperm is simultaneously enhanced as a result of the use of the red wavelength of light. In particular, every mammalian sperm, and fish contains one or more mitochondrion located between flagellar primordium (flagellum) and sperm nucleus. Mitochondrial energy levels as indicated by the amount of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) within the mitochondria determine flagellar beating frequency and also time of beating, or motility.

Cytochrome C Oxidase is a photosensitive protein that is one of the four protein complexes in the outer mitochondria membrane. Specifically, cells in a redox (reduction-oxidation) state are more sensitive to light than those in a normal state and the voltage potential between the inner and outer mitochondrial membrane changes under photostimulation by far-red and infrared (IR) light. This change in voltage potential between the inner and outer mitochondrial membrane thus triggers ATP production. Specifically, Cytochrome C Oxidase has a copper core and the rest of four protein complexes involved in outer shell of the mitochondrion also contain metals.

Due to the redox state, there are a lot of ions present that is very similar to a photovoltaic cell. Therefore, by providing an external light source of right spectrum and frequency to mitochondria ATP, production is enhanced increasing sperm motility.

In one embodiment the spectrum is in the red spectrum of light or 620 nm-750 nm. In another embodiment the spectrum is more than 750 nm and in other embodiments the spectrum is less than 620 nm. Still, by selecting a predetermined spectrum, ATP production is enhanced and sperm motility enhanced, thus increasing conception for swine as compared to a similarly situated swine had no light treatment been provided. In one embodiment the spectrum is provided by supplemental lighting used during the artificial insemination process to increase motility a predetermined amount of time, such as within one hour, of delivery to the semen to the female swine. Therefore success in breeding in again enhanced.

In yet another embodiment flagellar beating is caused by voltage differential pulses caused by pulsed light. In this manner flagellar beating is caused directly by the pulsing light, again increasing motility and thus increasing the probability of breeding as compared to rates had no light treatment been provided.

Thus provided is a system and method that increases predictability and probability of breeding of swine as compared to the predictability and probability of breeding without use of the system and method. In particular a lighting regime and system provides periodic decreases in light over a period thus causing male and female swine to perceive that a winter photoperiod is presented, providing higher probability of conception, but in addition, providing a cycle for the swine so that the time of conception becomes more predictable and better data can be provided. Further, by evenly distributing light, a calmer healthier swine is provided.

In addition, by using a predetermined wavelength of light, and in one embodiment in the 620 nm-750 nm range, physiologically the sperm quality for male swine is also increased. In this manner the probability of successful breeding of swine as compared to the probability of successful breeding without use of the system and method is increased. Therefore, all of the stated problems are overcome. 

What is claimed:
 1. A method of increasing the probability of breeding swine, comprising: providing a lighting system having a programmable timing device; providing, with the lighting system, predetermined periods of light and dark for the swine every twenty-four hours for a first amount of time; after the first amount of time, providing different predetermined periods of light and dark for the swine every twenty-four hours for a plurality of subsequent amounts of time; wherein the different predetermined periods of light and dark for each subsequent amount of time includes a period of light and dark where a greater amount of dark and lesser amount of light is provided to the swine than during the first or previous amount of time to increase the probability of breeding swine.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined periods of light and dark during the first amount of time is 16 hours of light and 8 hours of dark and the predetermined periods of light and dark during one of the plurality of subsequent amount of time is 8 hours of light and 16 hours of dark.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the period of dark for the swine is provided by a wavelength of light of between 620 nm-750 nm.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first amount of time is one week.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the plurality of subsequent amounts of time is one week.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined periods of light and dark during one of the subsequent amounts of time includes fourteen hours of white light and ten hours of red light.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined periods of light and dark during one of the subsequent amounts of time includes twelve hours of white light and twelve hours of red light.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined period of light is reduced by one hour and the predetermined period of dark is increased by one hour during each one of the subsequent amounts of time.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined periods of light and dark during the first predetermined amount of time is fourteen hours of light and ten hours of dark and the pre-determined period of light is reduced by one hour and the predetermined period of dark is increased by one hour during each one of the plurality of subsequent amounts of time.
 10. The method of claim 1 wherein the first pre-determined amount of time is one week and the pre-determined period of light is reduced by one hour and the pre-determined period of dark is increased by one hour during each one of the plurality of subsequent amounts of time over the course of seven weeks. 